Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Of all the days my body decides to completely shut itself down for 13 hours, it had to be last night going into today!!! ARGH!!!

Anyway, that's not what you're here to read about. You're here to read about the final scrimmage for Red Wings Training Camp 2010! It was exciting to me that I'd be able to watch the game on a web stream...until I slept through most of it from exhaustion. Yay!

However, perhaps because I only saw the last 10 minutes of the game I was picking every little detail apart as closely as I could. Granted, I had to quickly check numbers during play to see who was even playing on which team, it didn't take long to note which side had the Eurotwins. From the point I started watching (and I'm assuming for most of the game), Team Red showed the most offensive intensity, with Pav and Hank wreaking havoc on the minds of the Team White defenders.

With the score tied 3-3 and the clock winding down, I was thinking that maybe, JUST maybe, they would play an OT period and I could see a bit more of this grand spectacle. Apparently Jonathan Ericsson heard me and made good on what I was saying last year: he's taking over the choking role of Andreas Lilja on the roster. Ericsson, with one of the most pitiful attempts I've ever witnessed, crossed IN FRONT OF his netminder and tried to back pass the puck to his defense partner, only to have the puck travel 7.34 inches, which was the exact distance it took for Big E to put the puck right on Darren Helm's stick.

Wouldn't be so bad normally...except Helmer was on the other team.

Helm, with the greatest of ease, took the offered gift and stuffed it home past goalie Joey MacDonald, who really had no chance at all to stop the shot (supposing he even had time to finish processing his previous thought of 'what the HELL was that, Big Rig??'), and made it 4-3 Team Red.

After that, Red really never let up, pouring on pressure and doing well at keeping the puck in the offensive zone for chances. J-Mac made some good stops, but in the end it was too much pressure, and Team Red added another tally before the final whistle to end the game at 5-3 Team Red over Team White.

I really wish I could've watched this game from start to finish, and I'm sorry that my analysis is so patchy because of it, but from what I did see, things generally look good, and it makes me all the more excited for the regular season to start.

I'll have to settle for Detroit kicking the piss out of the Penguins tomorrow. Darn.